1950 in literature
The year 1950 in literature involved some significant events and new books. Events *Kazuo Shimada (1907–1996) wins the "Mystery Writer Of Japan" award for his book Shakai-bu Kisha (City Reporter). *Jack Kerouac has his first novel published. *Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is sent to a "special camp" for political prisoners in Kazakhstan *Dalton Trumbo co-writes the script of Gun Crazy under the pseudonym Millard Kaufman because of his imprisonment for contempt of court. *Adrian Bell begins writing his Countryman’s Notebook column in the Eastern Daily Press. New books *Marguerite de Angeli - The Door in the Wall *Isaac Asimov - I, Robot *Ray Bradbury - The Martian Chronicles *Gwen Bristow - Jubilee Trail *Pearl S. Buck - The Child Who Never Grew *John Dickson Carr **''The Bride of Newgate'' **''Night at the Mocking Widow'' (as by Carter Dickson) *Agatha Christie **''A Murder is Announced'' **''Three Blind Mice and Other Stories'' *William Cooper - Scenes from Provincial Life *A. J. Cronin - The Spanish Gardener *L. Sprague de Camp and P. Schuyler Miller - Genus Homo *L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt - The Castle of Iron *Daphne du Maurier - The Parasites *Ford Madox Ford - Parade's End *Hugh Garner - Cabbagetown *Frank Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey - Belles on Their Toes *Giovanni Guareschi - The Little World of Don Camillo *Frank Hardy - Power Without Glory *Ernest Hemingway - Across the River and Into the Trees *John Hersey - The Wall *Patricia Highsmith - Strangers on a Train *Robert E. Howard - Conan the Conqueror *MacKinlay Kantor - Lee and Grant at Appomattox *Jack Kerouac - The Town and the City *Frances Parkinson Keyes - Joy Street *Doris Lessing - The Grass Is Singing *C. S. Lewis - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe *Rose Macaulay - The World My Wilderness *Juan Carlos Onetti - La vida breve (A Brief Life) *Cesare Pavese - La Luna e i Falò *Barbara Pym - Some Tame Gazelle *Ellery Queen - Double, Double *Conrad Richter - The Town *Henry Morton Robinson - The Cardinal *Cezaro Rossetti - Kredu min, sinjorino! *Budd Schulberg - The Disenchanted *Nevil Shute - A Town Like Alice *Rex Stout - Three Doors to Death *Rex Stout - In the Best Families *Edith Templeton - Summer In The Country *James Thurber - The 13 Clocks *A. E. van Vogt - The Voyage of the Space Beagle *Mika Waltari - The Adventurer *Evelyn Waugh - Helena *Kathleen Winsor - Star Money *Frank Yerby - Floodtide New drama *Bertolt Brecht - The Tutor *Christopher Fry - Venus Observed *Kermit Hunter - Unto These Hills *William Inge - Come Back, Little Sheba *Eugène Ionesco - The Bald Soprano Short stories *Damon Knight - "To Serve Man" Poetry *Leah Bodine Drake - A Hornbook for Witches *Pablo Neruda - Canto General Non-fiction *Roland Bainton - Here I Stand:A Life of Martin Luther *E. H. Gombrich - The Story of Art *Thor Heyerdahl - Kon-Tiki *Octavio Paz - The Labyrinth of Solitude *Lionel Trilling - The Liberal Imagination *Raymond Williams - Reading and Criticism *Cecil Woodham-Smith - Florence Nightingale Births *January 25 - Gloria Naylor, African American author *February 11 - Mauri Kunnas, Finnish children’s author *July - Zhang Kangkang, Chinese writer *September 7 - Peggy Noonan, columnist, political writer *September 20 - James Blaylock, American fantasy author *October 17 - David Adams Richards, Canadian author *October 27 - Fran Leibowitz, American writer *Barbara Gowdy - Canadian novelist *Susan Eloise Hinton, American author Deaths *January 5 - Basil Williams, historian *January 21 – George Orwell, novelist *February 13 - Rafael Sabatini, novelist *February 24 - Irving Bacheller, journalist and writer *March 19 – Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan author *May 6 - Agnes Smedley, American journalist and writer known for chronicling the Chinese Civil War *May 11 - Alfred O. Andersson, newspaper publisher *May 13 - F. E. Compton, publisher of reference books *September 6 - Olaf Stapledon, philosopher and science-fiction author *October 9 - Nicolai Hartmann, philosopher *October 19 - Edna St. Vincent Millay, poet *November 2 - George Bernard Shaw *November 25 - Johannes Vilhelm Jensen, Danish author *December 28 - Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, short-story writer *December 31 - Xavier Villaurrutia, poet and dramatist *''date unknown'' **John Mooney, Orkney historian **Cezaro Rossetti, Esperanto writer **Helen Rowland, journalist and humorist **Cuthbert Whitaker, editor of Whitaker's Almanack Awards * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Elfrida Vipont, The Lark on the Wing * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Robert Henriques, Through the Valley * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Cecil Woodham-Smith, Florence Nightingale * Newbery Medal for children's literature: Marguerite de Angeli, The Door in the Wall * Newdigate prize: John Bayley * Nobel Prize for Literature: Earl (Bertrand Arthur William) Russell * Premio Nadal: Elena Quiroga, Viento del norte * Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Joshua Logan, South Pacific * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: A. B. Guthrie, Jr., The Way West * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Gwendolyn Brooks, Annie Allen External links * Category:Years in literature Category:History of literature Category:Literature by year